Asbestos in carpet?

[Sch84]

Greetings,

Just came across a site last night that does asbestos inspections and testing. The site lists all the items that have been tested for asbestos and came back positive. To my surprise one of the items was Berber carpet. Apparently the fiber backing came back positive for asbestos. I've had Berber carpet in my house for the last 20 years. I contacted the company and asked about the carpet in question. Like what year the carpet was made, what brand, and the percentage of asbestos used . Their response by phone and email was to have my carpet tested to see if it contains it. They wouldn't give me anymore info on the matter. I understand they can't tell me if my carpet is positive over the phone or email, but they should be able to provide info as to the brand, year, percentage and possible stores where it was sold.

Anyone know about this and care to give input on the matter? I can't find anything about it online aside from the one site.

 

[Floorist]

Sounds like a scam to me. I have been in this business since 1973 and have never heard of a carpet containing asbestos. The only flooring product with asbestos was the old VAT (tile) and they quit making it in the late 1970s.

 

[Nick]

Agree with Floorist . The only time we send cpt to be tested is if we want to confirm a certain defect in the cpt ..

 

[rugaddict]

Asbestos is extremely dry and brittle---where and why would that be in a carpet?

 

[DarisMulkin]

The big bad boy in carpet to my knowledge was formeldahyde. But that was taken out in the 80's if I remember right. But there are some still old school doctors who refuse to believe that.

Daris

 

[Incognito]

I both agree and disagree with the comments above.

GENERALLY speaking there is no need to have carpet tested for asbestos. It's a complete waste of money.

On the other hand.............I can pretty much guarantee that at some point some manufacturer.............30-50-75 YEARS ago has tried some kind of felt backing with asbestos as a component.

One in a million shot?

Yeah, pretty close to one in a million...........the odds that you might find some asbestos fibers in a "Berber" carpet in the Year Of Our Lord 2017. ?

Forget about it.

 

[Floorist]

If my memory is right, berber carpet did not come out until the 80s. The flooring mills were already gun-shy about it after the asbestos lawsuits in the 70s. No way they would have used it.

 

[Ernesto]

Does sound like a scam to me as well, never heard of it and with all these guys here we probably have 300 years worth of flooring experience.
The only possibility is that someone removed a popcorn ceiling and contaminated the carpet.

 

[highup]

Does sound like a scam to me as well, never heard of it and with all these guys here we probably have 300 years worth of flooring experience.
The only possibility is that someone removed a popcorn ceiling and contaminated the carpet.

If that's the case, you'd have to wrap the entire home in two layers of 6 mil plastic and bury it in an approved landfill.